CHAPTER11
The Third Wave
... like a New York cockroach, Control Video simply couldn't be killed off.
—Michael Schrage in The Washington Post
During the period when CVC and Playnet (the companies that would become AOL) rose and fell, several new consumer online services showed up. Their themes and sources were varied.
American People/Link (Plink)
GEnie would not be the only direct competitor for CompuServe. In 1983, two CompuServe Forum sysops left to build an online service dubbed American People/Link, better-known to its members as "Plink."1
Located in Chicago, Plink was an engaging service that targeted a young demographic and presented itself as more of a "social" service than CompuServe. The founders wanted to make it clear that Plink ...
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